difficult |
1. adj. Hard, not easy, requiring much effort. | |
However, the difficult weather conditions will ensure Yunnan has plenty of freshwater. | |
2. adj. (often of a, person, or a horse, etc) Hard to manage, uncooperative, troublesome. | |
Stop being difficult and eat your broccoli—you know it's good for you. | |
3. adj. (obsolete) Unable or unwilling. | |
4. v. (obsolete, transitive) To make difficult; to impede; to perplex. | |
or |
1. conj. Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc. each of which could make a passage true. In English, this is the "inclusive or." The "exclusive or" is formed by "either(...) | |
In Ohio, anyone under the age of 18 who wants a tattoo or body piercing needs the consent of a parent or guardian. | |
He might get cancer, or be hit by a bus, or God knows what. | |
2. conj. (logic) An operator denoting the disjunction of two propositions or truth values. There are two forms, the inclusive or and the exclusive or. | |
3. conj. Counts the elements before and after as two possibilities. | |
4. conj. Otherwise (a consequence of the condition that the previous is false). | |
It's raining! Come inside or you'll catch a cold! | |
5. conj. Connects two equivalent names. | |
The country Myanmar, or Burma | |
6. n. (logic, electronics) alternative form of OR | |
7. n. (tincture) The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms. | |
8. adj. (tincture) Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms. | |
9. adv. (obsolete) Early (on). | |
10. adv. (obsolete) Earlier, previously. | |
11. prep. (now archaic, or dialect) Before; ere. | |
impossible |
1. adj. Not possible; not able to be done or happen. | |
It is difficult, if not impossible, to memorize 20,000 consecutive numbers. | |
Sarah thinks that nothing is impossible because things can always somehow happen. | |
2. adj. (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with. | |
You never listen to a word I say – you're impossible! | |
3. adj. (math, dated) imaginary | |
impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers | |
4. n. (obsolete) an impossibility | |
to |
1. part. A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive. | |
I want to leave. | |
He asked me what to do. | |
I don’t know how to say it. | |
I have places to go and people to see. | |
2. part. As above, with the verb implied. | |
"Did you visit the museum?" "I wanted to, but it was closed.". | |
If he hasn't read it yet, he ought to. | |
3. part. A particle used to create phrasal verbs. | |
I have to do laundry today. | |
4. prep. Indicating destination: In the direction of, and arriving at. | |
We are walking to the shop. | |
5. prep. Used to indicate purpose. | |
He devoted himself to education. | |
They drank to his health. | |
6. prep. Used to indicate result of action. | |
His face was beaten to a pulp. | |
7. prep. Used after an adjective to indicate its application. | |
similar to ..., relevant to ..., pertinent to ..., I was nice to him, he was cruel to her, I am used to walking. | |
8. prep. (obsolete,) As a. | |
With God to friend (with God as a friend); with The Devil to fiend (with the Devil as a foe); lambs slaughtered to lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice); t | |
9. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate a ratio or comparison. | |
one to one = 1:1 | |
ten to one = 10:1. | |
I have ten dollars to your four. | |
10. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate that the preceding term is to be raised to the power of the following value; indicates exponentiation. | |
Three squared or three to the second power is nine. | |
Three to the power of two is nine. | |
Three to the second is nine. | |
11. prep. Used to indicate the indirect object. | |
I gave the book to him. | |
12. prep. (time) Preceding. | |
ten to ten = 9:50; We're going to leave at ten to (the hour). | |
13. prep. Used to describe what something consists of or contains. | |
Anyone could do this job; there's nothing to it. | |
There's a lot of sense to what he says. | |
14. prep. (Canada, UK, Newfoundland, West Midlands) At. | |
Stay where you're to and I'll come find you, b'y. | |
15. adv. Toward a closed, touching or engaging position. | |
Please push the door to. | |
16. adv. (nautical) Into the wind. | |
17. adv. misspelling of too | |
comprehend |
1. v. (now rare) To include, comprise; to contain. | |
2. v. To understand or grasp fully and thoroughly. | |
fathom |
1. n. (obsolete) Grasp, envelopment, control. | |
2. n. (units of measure, now usually nautical) An English unit of length for water depth notionally based upon the width of grown man's outstretched arms but standardized as 6 feet (about 1.8(nbsp)m). | |
3. n. (units of measure) Various similar units in other systems. | |
4. n. (figuratively) Depth of insight, mental reach or scope. | |
5. v. (transitive, archaic) To encircle with outstretched arms, especially to take a measurement; to embrace. | |
6. v. To measure the depth of, take a sounding of. | |
7. v. (transitive, figuratively) To get to the bottom of; to manage to comprehend; understand (a problem etc.). | |
I can't for the life of me fathom what this means. | |
or |
1. conj. Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc. each of which could make a passage true. In English, this is the "inclusive or." The "exclusive or" is formed by "either(...) | |
In Ohio, anyone under the age of 18 who wants a tattoo or body piercing needs the consent of a parent or guardian. | |
He might get cancer, or be hit by a bus, or God knows what. | |
2. conj. (logic) An operator denoting the disjunction of two propositions or truth values. There are two forms, the inclusive or and the exclusive or. | |
3. conj. Counts the elements before and after as two possibilities. | |
4. conj. Otherwise (a consequence of the condition that the previous is false). | |
It's raining! Come inside or you'll catch a cold! | |
5. conj. Connects two equivalent names. | |
The country Myanmar, or Burma | |
6. n. (logic, electronics) alternative form of OR | |
7. n. (tincture) The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms. | |
8. adj. (tincture) Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms. | |
9. adv. (obsolete) Early (on). | |
10. adv. (obsolete) Earlier, previously. | |
11. prep. (now archaic, or dialect) Before; ere. | |
interpret |
1. v. To explain or tell the meaning of; to translate orally into intelligible or familiar language or terms. applied especially to language, but also to dreams, signs, conduct, mysteries, etc. | |
to interpret an Indian speech - | |
2. v. To apprehend and represent by means of art; to show by illustrative representation | |
The actor interpreted the character of Hamlet with great skill. - | |
The way the musician interpreted a sonata was quite special. - | |
an artist interprets a landscape - | |
3. v. (intransitive) To act as an interpreter. | |
He interpreted at the meeting between the Chinese and French associates. - | |